THREE IS THE LUCKY NUMBER AS MIKE COLSTEN, CRAIG TERRELL, AND ALLEN COY
ALL SCORE THIRD WINS OF 2002
(Susquehanna, Pa.) They say good things happen in threes, and they
certainly did last Friday night at the Penn Can Speedway as three
different drivers scored their third win of the season on Friday night.
Mike Colsten drove his Don's Automotive Mall sponsored Teo ProCar to his
third consecutive Modified feature while Craig Terrell scored his third
Sportsman win of the season aboard his Klinger's Kawasaki sponsored #78.
Defending Late Model champion Allen Coy also took win number three in
The Late Model feature. Fifteen year old high school student Michael Lartz
picked up his first career feature win in the Pure Stock division. The
Super Stock feature was postponed due to rain and will be made up on May
31st.
The 30 lap Modified feature saw eventual winner Mike Colsten start
12th on the grid as Chris Weaver and ageless veteran Carl Nagel set the
early pace before Jim Crawn worked his way past both the take over the
lead. Crawn would manage to lead several laps, opening up a bit of an
advantage on the field, but it was not to be for Crawn as his #25x
begain to trail telltale white smoke and began to fall off the pace as Nagel
and new third place runner Brian Weaver were able to close right in. The
Nagel and Weaver scrap became a fight for the lead as Crawn was forced
To retire from the event just past the halfway point.
Nagel was able to hold off Weaver's Decker's Logging #9R for a
couple of laps, but Brian was too strong and powered into the lead with
Colsten also rocketing past and moving in to challenge Weaver for the
Top spot. This set up a chance for a battle between Weaver and Colsten, a
battle that Penn Can fans were looking forward to. To their
disappointment, it was not much of a battle as Weaver was obviously
fighting handling problems and Colsten was able to drive past with
relative ease to take over the top spot. The source of Weaver's
handling problems would become apparent a few laps later as Brian went pitside
with a flat right rear tire on lap 23. Some quick pit work got Weaver
back on the track on the lead lap, but with only seven laps left to run
Brian would not be a factor.
With Weaver now deep in the field, Carl Nagel and Chris Shupp were
now Colsten's nearest challengers. Disaster would strike both of these
two in the closing laps as they got together while racing for second,
forcing both to the back of the pack for the restart. The final restart
of the event saw Colsten able to immediately open up a bit of an
advantage over now second place Bob Hamm Jr., who was having his best
run of the season. Though he was not able to challenge Colsten over the
final laps as Colsten was able to drive away from him to score the win,
it was still Hamm's season best finish in second. Chris Weaver finished
third with Butch Tittle and George Kostelansky rounding out the top
five.
Brian Weaver charged from last to sixth place after his tire problems
while Bill Huff finished seventh. Chris Shupp overcame a skipping motor
as well as a tangle with Carl Nagel while battling for second to salvage
an eighth place finish. Alan Shiffler and Sean Collins completed the
top ten.
Jeff Bronson, Jim Crawn, and Carl Nagel were winners in the
Modified preliminary events.
In the Sportsman ranks it was Craig Terrell picking up his third
Win of the season. Terrell started eleventh but wasted little time in
Making his way to the front of the field. Terrell took over the lead on a lap
six restart with a big move that saw him advance from third to the lead.
Once out front, Craig led the final 14 laps to pick up the win.
Sportsman rookie Rick Holgate finished a career best second with fellow
rookie Dan Vauter recovering from an early spin to take third. Brian
Decker and Rick Whitney completed the top five. Bob Lane finished sixth
ahead of Dave Leyshon, Garth Tonkin, Ted Stout and Jim O'Hara. Brian
Decker, Tom McGurrin, and Craig Terrell won heat races for the season
high 23 Sportsman cars on hand.
Defending track champion Allen Coy also won his third feature of
The season in the Late Model ranks. The Late Model veteran from Montrose,
Pa. drove his Cooley Stone #53 from ninth starting position to the lead
and was never seriously challenged once out front. Randall Paxton
finished second with Dave Zona third. Joe Damiano finished fourth with
Al Whittaker fifth. Jamie Griffith, Daryl Ellis, Jason Carmen, Steve
Tourje, and Lou Sparks rounded out the top ten. Late Model preliminary
events were won by Joe Damiano and Jim O'Hara.
Fifteen year old Michael Lartz picked up his first career feature
win in the Pure Stock feature. Lartz was running third when the leader
and second place cars tangled while battling for the lead, turning the
lead over to Lartz. The closing laps of the feature found Lartz
battling not only with runner-up Daryl Ellis, but rapidly deteriorating weather
and track conditions as a steady rain began to fall. Lartz showed
plenty of poise at the head of the pack as he drove a perfect line despite the
rain, never allowing Ellis an opportunity to make a challenge. Lartz
crossed the line first trailed by Ellis and Billy House. Keith Wilkins
rebounded from an early race incident to finish fourth with Gary Druhl
fifth. Randy Teets, Kevin Davies, Mark Hoyte, Bob Albrecht, and Toby
Sparks completed the top ten. Toby Sparks and Craig Decker were heat
winners.
The persistent rains made it impossible to run the Super Stock
feature, which was postponed until May 31st. All of the qualifying was
completed and the field is set for this feature. Mike Mills and Craig
Trella will pace the 18 car field to the green flag. Tracy Gregory and
Paul Rooney won the Super Stock heat races.
Racing continues this Friday night with a very special Memorial Day
Weekend racing card. The United Racing Club Sprint Car Series makes
Its first ever appearance at the Penn Can Speedway with well over 30 of the
best 360 C.I. Sprint cars in the Northeast expected to be in
competition.
The Mighty Modifieds, Super Stocks, and Pure Stocks will also see
Action on a very full night of racing action at Penn Can The action gets
underway at 7:15PM.
PENN CAN SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS: 1. MIKE COLSTEN 2. Bob Hamm 3. Chris Weaver 4. Butch Tittle
5. George Kostelansky 6. Brian Weaver 7. Bill Huff 8. Chris Shupp 9. Alan
Shiffler 10. Sean Collins 11. Brian Payne 12. Mike Nagel 13. Rich
Tiffany 14. Carl Nagel 15. Tom McGurrin 16. Alan Rudalavage 17. Chris Ostrowsky
18. John Gurnsey 19. Mike Decker 20. Rich Tiffany 21. Brian Franko 22.
Rich Keehle 23. Jim Crawn 24. Rick Virkitis 25. Jeff Bronson
SPORTSMAN: 1. CRAIG TERRELL 2. Rick Holgate 3. Dan Vauter 4. Brian
Decker 5. Rick Whitney 6. Bob Lane 7. Dave Leyshon 8. Garth Tonkin 9. Ted Stout
10. Jim O'Hara 11. Mike Marold 12. Darren Stout 13. Brett Tonkin 14.
Kevin Timinski 15. Bob Conklin 16. Bruce Evans Jr. 17. Dan Buchannon 18.
Dennis Latwinski 19. Sean Olenski 20. Mark Hanichak 21. Tom McGurrin 22.
Eric Bonham 23. Gary Gallerie
LATE MODEL: 1. ALLEN COY 2. Randall Paxton 3. Dave Zona 4. Joe Damiano
5. Al Whitaker 6. Jamie Griffith 7. Daryl Ellis 8. Jason Carmen 9. Steve
Tourje 10. Lou sparks 11. Rich King 12. Brent Dyer 13. George Leatso 14.
Carl Silvernail 15. Clint Kauffman 16. Jim O'Hara 17. Keith Mudge
18.Dave Silvernail 19. Randy Metcalf
PURE STOCK: 1. Michael Lartz 2. Daryl Ellis 3. Billy House 4. Keith
Wilkins 5. Gary Druhl 6. Randt Teets 7. Kevin Davies 8. Mark Hoyte 9.
Bob Albrecht 10. Toby Sparks 11. Rob Welch 12. Gregg Brunges 13. Nate Evans
14. Jim Ortiz 15. Matt Payne 16.Everett Cass 17. Tom Garren 18. Craig
Decker 19. Dennis Gow
SUPER STOCK FEATURE LINE-UP (To be run May 31, 2002) 1. Mike Mills 2.
Craig Trella 3. Joe Cabets 4. Tracy Gregory 5. Randy Metcalf 6. Dich
Vauter 7. Chris Hunsinger 8. Rob Latwinski 9. Paul Rooney 10. Brett
Spoor 11. Dwayne Robbins 12. Skip Peabody 13. Earl Zimmer 14. Rich Brown 15.
Jack Stanley 16. Mike Wilmont 17. Tom Herman 18. Jamie Shea .
Drivers not present on May 17th will not be added to the field.